Ok, here we go, I've thought about doing a project thread for a while and by popular demand...well 3 or 4 people here it is...

So be gentle as I'm a project thread virgin

Having built my Orange SE5 sprint car in 2006, I then converted it into to a race car for the 2008 season and competed with it for a couple of years.. The car did a fair amount of giant killing but the top of the podium was a bit too much of an ask for it... After being mugged by V8's down the straights, and with a heavy heart I sold the GTE and hatched a plan to build a TVR Tuscan V8, I built the car in around 8 months and the wins came....but I never felt as connected with it as the GTE, and I worried too much about damaging it with the values going thru the roof!! Think I might be a bit of a Scimitar man too??

So it was sold for a healthy profit and then the search for a replacement began....and promptly ended when this appeared on the forum..

A quick phone call and a few emails later I was on my way from Huddersfield to Bromley to collect one of my favorite Scims ever, Jaki and Tony Heaths ex sprint car.. I saw the car on a Sabre rally in Kent in 2003 and I'd wanted it ever since, so it seemed like it was meant to be!?

I got it off the trailer and first job was to wash it and remove the stickers which were not really to my taste...hmm, this brought most of the paint off underneath..not a great start, but still happy

So it needs a respray then, but that's not the end of the world as I need to change the rear arches as my race series won't allow them, which is a shame because I love them..

So the plan is to refresh the car, extend the half cage and change the arches, easy

Last edited by turbster on Tue May 15, 2018 10:38 am, edited 2 times in total.

I decided to go for some 6"x 15" Revolution 5 spokes, off the shelf TR6 items, I went for these for various reasons; they are easily available, a fair bit cheaper than wheels made to order, and 6" is actually Yokohamas spec size rim for the 205's...My studs are uprated to 1/2" UNF, so I had to open the holes out from the TR6/Coupe's 7/16ths UNF.

The original arches were in the boot of the car, so I cut the wide ones off the tried the standard ones with the wheels/tyres...no chance!! I think 195's would fit, but they're not an option

Plan B... SE5 arches, and a request on here resulted in a trip over to Geraint Williams in North Wales to collect some free of charge arches from a scrap shell, thanks Geraint, very much appreciated!

This has been done plenty of times before, but at varying heights/distance to swage line. As the ride height is low and the old arches had been bonded over the swage, I decided to use the GTE swage line and cut a squared off cut out which I would mirror onto the GTE arch..

A Fenn multitool was used for this...THE best tool ever for cutting Scimitars!!

OK thats the first problem solved, very happy with the result too. the tyre clearance ... Repeated on the other side and bonded in, It's time to remove all the paint before finishing the arches off.. Unfortunately the swage depth doesn't line up perfectly, but it's not that far out so I should be able to blend it ok..

We'll have a look what 45 years of competition and road use have done to the body next!!??

How do, Paul. Loving this already. Please tell me that the second photo of the lower wishbones DOESN'T show a crack adjacent to the outside bolt, I hope its just muck or somesuch.
Jaki, bless her, got me going on my first ever sprint and the huge fun I'm having continues! Best of luck with the car, got to keep the "ones with pedigree" worrying the pointy ones! Brian.

Just shows how good the register was when I took it over (insert your own choice of rude word here)

It also shows how much people listen when you ask everyone to reregister their cars even if they think they're already on the list (chances are they are not) even those long standing club members often don't answer such pleas for help

I have brief footage of this car competing in practice for the Donnington 6-hour relay race in 1978, when it was owned by Dave Newman. He had an off, beaching it in one of the run-off areas, and didn't take part in the main event - which in the end comprised six Sabres. I'll try to dig out some video grabs.